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Televisa comes under attack for third time

Car bomb exploded in front of the television station

MEXICO CITY -- A car bomb exploded in front of a Televisa station in the northern state of Tamaulipas on Friday, marking the third time this month that Mexico's top network has come under attack.

A Televisa morning news program reported that the car bomb was detonated early this morning just outside its Ciudad Victoria studio. The explosion was so strong that witnesses said it shook buildings several blocks away. The blast knocked out electricity service and the station's local signal was down for several hours.

No injuries were reported, but Televisa said the studio building suffered structural damage. Another explosive device reportedly went off on Friday in front of a municipal police station.

The latest incident on Friday comes two weeks after a pair of Televisa stations in Tamaulipas and in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon were rocked by grenade attacks. Both of the northeast border states have seen a recent increase in drug-related violence as cartel turf wars intensify. State authorities in Tamaulipas this week were investigating a massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants.

Non-government organizations are becoming increasingly concerned about the wave of escalating violence against the media here. Press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders estimates that 67 reporters have been killed in Mexico since 2000, making it "the western hemisphere's deadliest country for the media."

Last month, two Televisa cameramen were kidnapped and the abductors were demanding that the network air a video allegedly revealing collusion between government officials and presumably members of a rival drug gang. Police later managed to rescue the Televisa employees, but the incident sparked a Mexico City protest march of some 1,000 reporters, who were demanding better protection in coverage of a drug war that has claimed more than 28,000 lives since 2006.